Restaurant Review: Bistro La Petite Rotonde, Paris, France

Bistro La Petite Rotonde - dinner on December 30, 2013

I've always blithely maintained that you can't eat bad food in Paris even if you tried and you'd have to be trying really hard. I've only been to Paris twice now but whether I eat at a hole in the wall or a formal restaurant, the food isn't just good, it's amazing. Bistro La Petite Rotonde was just down the street from our hotel so it was the most convenient place to eat when we first arrived. We didn't yelp it or go looking for anything in particular. We just glanced at the sidewalk menu, determined the prices wouldn't break our wallet and went right in.

The interior all decked out for Christmas

The menu was in French but I retained enough from my 4 years of high school French to remember the French words for most food: "poulet is chicken, "canard" is duck, "beouf" is beef, etc. And when that failed, the bistro had free wifi so we could also look up anything we wanted to know on google translate. Ha, the wonders of technology don't leave you with any excuse to be ignorant.

Smoked Salmon Pasta

My nieces got the salmon pasta (which came as smoked salmon) and a chicken mushroom pasta. I sampled the chicken pasta and it was delicious. I don't like the texture of mushrooms but they made for a flavorful sauce and the chicken was like very delicious rotisserie chicken - yum.

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta

My own order was the Quiche Lorraine and I must say, it was the most creamy, wonderfully cheesy quiche I've ever had. I'm predisposed to like quiche anyway since I love eggs and cheese but this was probably one of the best quiches I've had in terms of taste and texture. I don't know how or why but the food always tastes better in France.

Quiche Lorraine

Creme Brulee

For dessert we shared the Creme Brulee and Crepes Suzette. The creme brulee was to die for, so sinfully rich and creamy it was worth every calorie and then some. I've made creme brulee before but mine has never tasted this good. I know you can get creme brulee anywhere but seriously, no one does creme brulee like the French.

So good....

The crepes Suzette is a traditional French dessert but this was the first time I've had one in France. Our waiter doused it in Grand Marnier and lit it on fire while he turned it over and back to soak in the syrup. It was good but the orange liqueur taste was quite strong. I'm not big on alcohol so I focused on the I'll-pay-for-this-later-on-the-treadmill-and-that's-just-fine-with-me crème brulee.

Might be hard to tell but it's aflame